Catie Ball

Class of: 2010

Sport: Swimming

Team: US Olympics

School: UF

Catherine Northcutt “Catie” Ball Condon was born in Jacksonville, FL on September 30, 1951. Catie swam for the J.E.T.S. swim team in AAU competition as a teenager. At the Mexico City Olympic Games, Ball was the world record holder in all four distances of the breaststroke, but she arrived at the Olympics with a case of influenza. She was too ill to swim in the qualifying heats of the 200-meter breaststroke event, and finished fifth in the 100-meter breaststroke. Ball won her only gold medal in the 400-meter medley relay, swimming the breaststroke leg of the four-person relay.

After the Olympics, Catie attended the University of Florida, where she was hired her senior year as the first women’s swimming coach. Her team had an undefeated record in dual meets and finished second in the nation that season. Catie held the world record in the 100 meter breaststroke from 1966 – 1972 and the 200 meter breaststroke world record from 1967 – 1976. She won gold medals in the 100 and 200 meter breaststroke in the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada.

Ball was the 1967 nominee for the Sullivan Award for the state of Florida and was inducted into the Swimming Hall of Fame in 1976 as an honor swimmer.